I've had the pleasure of living in the Valley of the Sun for over 8 years and over that period of time I have become a tad bit cynical when talking about the Arizona Cardinals. When I arrived in 1999, the team was coming off it's first ever winning season in Phoenix and it's first trip to the playoffs (and their last trip to the playoffs) since they relocated from St. Louis in 1988. Since then they have gone 6 & 10, 3 & 13, 7 & 9, 5 & 11, 4 & 12, 6 & 10, 5 & 11 and another 5 & 11 campaign. Over that same 8 year period the organization has hired 4 head coaches and fired 3 of them. This team has been extremely hard to embrace for people who have moved to Arizona over the last 8 years. They haven't given us a reason to become diehard Red Bird fans and trust me, I have talked with a large number of people over the years that would love to call this team their team but with so much negative baggage following this team since it became the Arizona Cardinals, that hasn't happened. For those few thousands that are actually diehard Cardinals fans, they epitomize "Tough Love". Through good and bad (mostly bad) these diehards paint their faces, fork out thousands for tickets, cheer their guts out at home games and go home with that sick feeling of another loss. A few rare victories over the last year continues to give this fan base hope.
Fast forward to a couple of days before the Cardinals open the 2007 regular season on Monday night football before a nationally televised audience when they play at San Francisco. It is, for the first time in my 8 years in the Valley, a TIME FOR OPTIMISM. I started to change my tune about this team when I first met head coach Ken Whisenhunt in person. I covered this team in training camp at NAU and from the very first practice, I noticed a tremendous difference in how the coaches and players approached their sessions. The pace was fast and furious. The practices were short but productive. The players bought into Coach Whiz's system lock, stock and barrel. Yes, I know they didn't win a preseason game. I also remember when they won all 4 preseason games in 2003. That year the Cards won a grand total of 4 regular season games. I have a good feeling about this group, so good that I believe they'll win more games this season than in any of the previous 8 that I've witnessed.
Before you think I drank the Cardinals kool aid, I'm also realistic enough to know you can't correct annual losing by simply changing coaching staffs. So with that in mind, this team will go 8 and 8 and being in the optimistic frame of mind I'm in at this very moment, that could be good enough in the NFC West to get them into the playoffs.

Gary Cruz
CBS 5 Sports Anchor
gcruz@kpho.com